Unexpected King: God Never Gives up On His People

Introduction

As the summer season ends and the fall semester draws near, whether you’re a college student or in a career, new beginnings and new seasons are at hand. Some of you will be leaving to head back to school for the fall. Others of you will be getting things in order to attend class here locally. Others of you are starting to teach fall classes in your school or are forecasting our fall sales predictions at work. As we prepare for a new season, we’re given an opportunity to reflect. What are we going to do with this fall? What are going to be our priorities for this fall season? What have been our priorities this summer? For some of us, this change in season offers us more regularity with our schedules. Some of you may try to start going to the gym again or to get back into doing regular quiet times as you enter into this new season.

Group Question 1:

At your tables, I want you to discuss what your most excited about for this fall and what are some things you want to do as you enter into the fall.

In tonight’s lesson, we’ll be going back in time thousands of years to a story told in 1 Samuel 12 that I think you will find is abundantly relevant to our lives and will help us prepare to enter into this fall season. If you have your bibles, whether paper or electronic, turn with me to 1 Samuel 12 and we’ll camp out there tonight.

As you turn there, let me give you the context of the passage.

For a thousand years, God has been the king of Israel. He had been their ruler. But as the years went by, the people of God began to look at what they thought were greener pastures. They saw the human kings in the surrounding nations they desired for a human king to sit on the throne; a king they could see and touch that would fight their battles for them. In 1 Samuel 8 the people of God said to Samuel, “There shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles,” (1 Sam. 8:19-20). Samuel, who is resistant to give the people a king, is instructed by God to grant the peoples’ request. Following God’s direction, Samuel anoints Saul to be king. As Samuel sets up Saul as king he delivers an unexpected speech. Rather than simply heaping praise on Saul, Samuel addresses His people serious fashion. Our passage today, starting in 1 Samuel 12:6 is part of Samuel’s speech to the people of God.

1 Samuel 12:6-25

And Samuel said to the people, “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

Who is Your King?

As we enter into this new season, we’re given an opportunity to see what really drives us. What is it that our hearts are really after? Does the way we spend our time and energy truly showcase what we say we live for?; what really motivates us? Who or what are we giving praise to through our time, and thought, and energy? If we’re honest, at the base of all that we do, who or what are we really bowing our knee to?

To put it another way, what or who is ruling as king in our lives? Is it God? Or is it something else?

For the people of God, God was supposed to be their king but they fought and sought to have someone else rule over them as king.

This can feel obviously foolish to us, but we do this all of the time. We all have sought other things to be king over our lives before. What king is ruling over you right now?

What king does your calendar say you serve? Based on what consumes your thought and energy and time, what king is on the throne of your life?

It's not that your job or your relationship can't take up a great deal of your thought. Of course, when you're at work you should be thinking about your job. But is God's glory the ground for your motivation at work? Is God's renown the reason you're pursuing your degree in school? Is your love for God driving the effort and energy you're putting into your friendships? Is God's glory the spring from which all of the streams of your time and energy, and school, and work, and relationships flowing from? That's how we ensure He is the king over our life and affections.

When God’s people ask for another king besides him, feel the weight and hurt of God’s words to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:7:

“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.’”

Feel the weight of that.

What is it that you are making king over God? Where are you rejecting God from being king over your life? Where is it in your life that God can say, “You’ve rejected me”?

Even in preparation for this lesson, I mourned over this thought. To think that you and I might reject the living God is sorrowful.

We must identify the false kings in our lives so we can seek to make the Lord our one true king.

Comparison

One way we can better discern what false kings are on the throne of our lives is by seeing how we compare ourselves to others.

We all compare ourselves to others. Even in our story, the Israelites compared themselves to the nations around them. They desired a human king on the throne. Remember what they said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8? They said, “There shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles,” (1 Sam. 8:19-20). They wanted to be like the other nations. Before we break this down any further, I think it would be helpful for us to identify ways we compare ourselves to others.

Group Question 2:

What is it that your friends or peers have that you don’t but wish you did? What ways do you compare your life to others? Is it in your job, relationship (or lack thereof), family life? Whatever it may be, talk about ways you and your peers compare yourself to one another.

When we compare ourselves to others, we get a front row seat our idols. We get a clearer view of what we’re allowing to reign as king on the throne of our lives. When we envy the lives and possessions of others, we’re shown what we really desire. Do you desire the job, the scholarship, the school, the grades, the marriage, the relationship, or family peace of your friends? As you sense that envy, take note of it because it reveals two major things to you. Not only does it reveal the king you wish to rule over you, but it also shows you where you may not trust in God’s provision. The people of God did not trust that God would protect them or provide for them so they desired a human king 0n the throne. They compared themselves to the surrounding evil nations and envied the human kings those nations had on their thrones. The people of God trusted human kings to provide them protection, satisfaction, joy, and peace more than God Himself. We do the same thing. We trust in other things to provide us peace, satisfaction, and delight. And its those things that we pursue and give praise and honor with our time, energy, and effort.

Another way besides comparison to see what the kings of your life might be is to see what you seek out when a king over your life falls. Israel went from one king to another to no real avail over the course of their history, many times shewing God out of the picture. We can do the same thing. For example, when one king in our life falls, like when we get rejected during a job interview, or a relationship ends, what do we go to for contentment in the aftermath? Do we go to God to provide us peace and delight or do we go to food, pornogaphy, gossip, or other things to make us feel better. We’ve all heard of the funny phenomenon where after a break up people break out a gallon of ice cream and down the whole thing in their despair. We may laugh at that, but that’s a perfect example of one king fall and us putting another king in its place. Whatever we go to for true delight in the moment is our true king in that moment.

As Christians, we are to go to God to provide us true contentment and peace. Certainly God uses good things like meal with friends, or a wise friend we can go to in despair to help bring us peace and contentment, but if we seek things for what they will give us in themselves then we’re making something else our king.

We must strive to trust in God’s provision for our lives. When we envy, and compare ourselves to others, or when we binge something after something happens, we’re not trusting in God’s provision for our lives.

Do you trust God’s provision for your life? What is an area of your life that your struggle to trust in God’s provision? Where do you struggle to believe that what He’s given or giving you is sufficient?

What area of your life do you most consistently fret about or wake up in the middle of the night to think about? What area of your life raises your heart rate in anxiety most when you think of it? That’s the area the you probably trust in God’s provision the least.

Are you taking that thing consistently to God in prayer? If not, it may be a clue that you don’t actually trust that he can or will provide. If we don’t even take our desires and despairs to God, how can we really claim to believe that God is God and that He can provide?

Reflecting on God’s Provision in the Past Helps Us Trust in His Provision for the Future.

Samuel tries to help God’s people trust in God’s provision by reminding them of how God has provided in the past.

Notice what Samuel does in verses 6-11. He’s reminding the people of God’s continued faithfulness.

In Samuel’s words we see a powerful principle to help us bolster our trust in God’s provision:

Reflecting on God’s Provision in the Past Helps Us Trust in His Provision for the Future.

I want us to do this right now. I want us to reflect on God’s provision in our lives in the past to bolster our confidence in His provision in the future.

Group Question 3:

How has God provided for you in the past? How has He shown His faithfulness in your life?

When we are reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past, we can trust that He will be faithful in the future. The biblical writers get this. That’s why they’re always pointing back to the exodus in the Old Testament and to the cross and resurrection in the New Testament. They are pointing us back to the faithfulness of God so that we might trust in His provision in the future.

Just Because God Gives Us Our Desires Doesn’t Mean He’s Blessing Them; He May Be Showing Us Our Idols

As we move on to our next point, I want us to think about this question at our tables:

Group Question 4:

what is something that you really, really desired but didn’t live up to the hype when you received it or experienced it?

We’ve talked a lot about comparison and trusting in God’s provision when we don’t have the things we desire. But what about when we get the desire of our heart? What about when we get the thing we’ve so deeply wanted? What happens when we get that marriage, job, relationship, scholarship, or social status? What does it mean? If God gives it to us, does that mean He approves of it or He blesses it? Does that mean that it’s good? Israel got the king they were after, but what did that mean for them?

If we were to take a step back a look at the whole history of the kings of Israel and Judah, here’s what we would see. Israel would go on to have 40+ kings. Maybe 2 of the 40 were any good and even those kings, like David, sinned royally. The kings failed so much that the nation of Israel split into 2. By 500 B.C. or so the two nations were taken into captivity and God’s people didn’t even have their own kings ruling over them. God is giving us a clear message: human kings are not enough. God gave His people their sinful desires, not because He approved of them, but to show them that those idols aren’t enough to truly satisfy them and give them peace.

This is a big lesson for us. Just because God gives us the desires of our hearts, even if we prayed for them, doesn’t mean He approves of them. He may actually be showing us our idols and that they can’t ultimately satisfy.

I have friends who have made their job, their marriage, or their social status their kings and when they actually get the things they sought after, they realize they are empty. They don’t satisfy them like they thought they would.

Jobs, marriage, relationships, and money are terrible kings to have rule over you. They are wicked masters who can never truly give you the peace, delight, and contentment you desire.

There is only one true and good king and He bows to no one. When all of the other kings we try to put in His place fall short, He gives us hope and victory. He fights our battles for us and provides us with everything we need.

The King of Kings

Even the way Jesus became king gives us hope and it’s beautifully related to our passage tonight. Despite the immense wickedness of God’s people in asking for a human king, God uses the line of kings His people ask for to ultimately allow Jesus to take His throne as the king of kings. After God’s people had lacked trust in his provision, rejected God as their king, and sought a human king on the throne God showed them how insufficient their kings were. After 40+ bad kings, the split of the nation, and the captivities that left those nations without kings, God called upon the Son of a carpenter, born of a virgin to make his way to take his place on the throne. This king didn’t assume His throne through selfish warlike means, but by giving up his life on a cross. Jesus didn’t assume his throne through defeating human kings, but through defeating the greatest enemies of all: sin and death.

The irony of it all is that while Pharisees thought they were doing exactly what it took to keep Jesus from becoming king, they exercised the very means by which God would make Jesus king.

Listen to this incredible quote from 19th century theologian J.L. Reynolds about this:

"When Christ uttered, in the judgment hall of Pilate, the remarkable words—“I am a king,” he pronounced a sentiment fraught with unspeak- able dignity and power. His enemies might deride his pretensions and express their mockery of his claim, by presenting him with a crown of thorns, a reed and a purple robe, and nailing him to the cross; but in the eyes of unfallen intelligences, he was a king. A higher power presided over that derisive ceremony, and converted it into a real coronation. That crown of thorns was indeed the diadem of empire; that purple robe was the badge of royalty; that fragile reed was the symbol of unbounded power; and that cross the throne of dominion which shall never end."- J.L. Reynolds, "The Kingdom of Christ in its Internal and External Development" (1849)

Jesus walked out of the grave with perfect power and ultimate authority. In Matthew 28, He says that all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Him. He shares His throne with no one. And He alone is the truly God and right king. He and He alone is the one who can ultimately satisfy. Only He is sovereign over our desires and despairs. Only He rules all of reality. And only He can give us the joy and contentment we seek.

This should give us astonishing hope. If we have given our lives to Christ we can rest assured that we have a king who is faithful, just, and loves us more than we could ever imagine.

A King of Unbounded Hope

But some of us here tonight may have a hard time believing that this great king could love us. We’re burdened by the shame of our past. We’re burdened by “that sin” that no one knows about. We’re beginning to believe the lie that Jesus could never love us because of what we’ve done in our past. If that’s you, 1 Samuel 12 gives us hope.

Notice what Samuel says in verses 20-22 to God’s people after their unspeakable sin in asking for a human king:

“And Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.’”

God will not forsake His people! If you’re a Christian here tonight, God has staked the fame of His name on His faithfulness to you.

Think about what God is putting at stake when He claims you. He’s putting at stake his perfection, his infinite love, his preeminent power, his colossal compassion, his perfect peace, his absolute goodness, his great justice, his astonishing wisdom and so much more. All of that is at stake when God cleaves Himself in covenant to his people. Do you think God would fall into unfaithfulness with all of that at stake? Do you think God would let that slip away and and therefore cease to be God Himself? Absolutely not! God’s faithfulness and grace is unfailing!

God will always provide and prove faithful. He will never reject you or cut you off. God can no sooner cease to be God than to cease to be faithful to His people!

That’s the heart of the Gospel. Despite our unfaithfulness, despite all of the ways we have turned away from God, God remains faithful. If we place our faith in God that He is mighty to save and make Him king of our lives we can rest assured that no matter what comes, God will remain faithful for His great name’s sake. It’s because of His faithfulness that we give Him the praise due His name.

A king of this unspeakable greatness doesn’t share His throne. We can fight against him for the throne of our lives and end up exhausted and unsatisfied, and in the end defeated, or we can joyfully submit to Him as king. Jesus will claim His throne in our life one way or another. Will we give it to him in joy or painful defeat?

Whether it’s for the first time or once again, let’s give Jesus the throne of our lives and praise Him for his goodness, provision, love, and salvation with joy for His great name’s sake.

So this fall, will you make God the king over your affections, schedule, efforts, energy and life? Will you seek Him as your source of joy? Will you trust in God to provide? Will you seek Him as your king?

Pray